Mr Burke says the State Government had agreed to take responsibility for the program and it is not up to the Commonwealth to step in.

"I continue to ask them to step back up on the mark on it," he said.

"We can't be in a situation where [Premier] Campbell Newman just makes every irresponsible cut he wants on the basis that the Commonwealth will come in and make the responsible decision, to excuse it."

It's a fundamental human yearning to be a part of something bigger than one's self, and maybe that's what drove my mate Ash to die, far from home, in a bloody foreign war against Islamic State, writes C August Elliott.